Saturday, February 14, 2009

Time to join the rest of the world ...

Which is a funny thing to say when I'm actually flooded in. All five creek crossings between my house and the entrance to the valley are underwater. They'll be cleared by morning as the rain seems to have slowed. At least I hope so.

I've had some work done in my sewing room and as a result (and my totally scrambled state of mind recently) the room is a mess. With being flooded in, I've been slowly sorting it out and putting things away in my nice new cupboards. To help with this I've been finishing off SOME of those pesky unfinished objects. The first of them is a skirt for my SWAP made from the same spring tweed as the jacket I've started (and still not finished).

It's probably my first real TNT pattern. I bought this probably long OOP New Look pattern at an op shop in Murwillumbah about 8 years ago. It cost me 20c. I've made it with and without the box pleats so many times now I've lost count. This time I decided to lose the waistband and face it instead. Because of the looseness of the fabric I lined it with a very light weight soft cotton in pale pink. I just eyeballed a pattern and cut around the completed skirt. Worked well. I'm a little ambivalent about this skirt in this fabric. I have enough to make a short straight skirt if I decide I don't like it.

Next up was to hem a skirt that I don't even remember how long ago I started. It's from a vintage Vogue pattern that I now can't find to tell you the number, but it was either a Pierre Balmain or a Charles Montana from the 80's. It was given to me by a friend who only bought expensive designer patterns. She gave me three jam packed box loads and they were all Vogue designer and most of them unused. I've made a few of the patterns over the years and have recently hauled out some early 80's skirts that seem identical to some on the Vogue website this season. This one is a drop waist, bias cut skirt which comes with a co-ordinating top and jacket. The skirt can be made with two different length layers for effect and the picture on the front is cutein that 80's way ... if only I could find it to show you. I don't know what the fabric is, black popliny stuff with a gray stripe - lightweight for summer with a little stretch. It will do for work.

The other thing that I finished today was this BWOF wrap top. I think it was from 1/2008. Loads of people made this top and loved it, but I doubt I'd make it again. It's a little too fussy for me and I think that tie waist thing will drive me nuts after a while. Still, I love this fabric, bought from Fashionista Fabrics at the same time as the Spring Tweed.

I've traced three patterns for my SWAP this afternoon and I've started to cut out Vogue 1020. I'm making the dress. It's nothing to do with my SWAP, but it will be a quick fix and I need that right now.

I'm going to steal Summerset's parting shot idea for a once off. I was pleasantly surprised today when I put my BWOF top on Vera and noticed the placement of the design and how lucky I was (because I didn't even think about it when I cut it out). It got me thinking about some inappropriate placement I've seen recently. This is a shot of my brother-in-law and a pair of very expensive vintage Hot Tuna jeans. The little oval patterns are very randomly scattered through the stripe, too much so for me to think this was accidental ...

Hi Carol and thanks so much for the information. I hope the waters have receded. The skirts are lovely and especially the blouse and clearly understand the fussy part with regard to the tie, but its very pretty.

Ok... the pic of your brother's pants is a hoot - talk about misplacement....lol.